Jul 8, 2007
Tour de France English Weekend
The Tour de France’s English jaunt has come to an end after a very successful prologue and stage one. The prologue through London brought out great weather and huge crowds who lined up along some of London’s biggest monuments to take in a bike race. Fabian Cancellara took the win by burning up the course in under 9 minutes for a five mile time trial. The course was not super fast with “chip and seal” type pavement, lots of “traffic furniture” remnants which required racers to bunny hop their bikes at certain points.
Fabian Cancellara claimed his second Yellow Jersey which was a great sign for embattled team manager Bjanrne Riis. His team is used to success in the Tour de France, but the “Eagle” is not with is team in London or any other part of the race since he is persona non-grata with anything dealing with the Tour. Seems that Bjarne’s admission to things that many thought was pretty obvious makes his a pariah. Well at least until next year. By the way, I agree with Lance Armstrong’s recent statements about Bjarne. Riis should not give back his Yellow Jersey. If he does then Richaaaard Virenque should give back all of his Polka Dot jerseys that were earned when he was in Festina colors.
Stage One to Canterbury showed some great English countryside. Makes you want to take a trip out to England to ride those roads. The jaunt was dominated by an early breakaway which included Englishman David Millar. Millar was trying to get something going after not showing very good TT form during the prologue. Millar accomplished a major task in winning just enough points to wear the Polka Dot jersey for at least a day.
The final sprint came down to Robbie McEwen who appeared from absolutely nowhere to take the win. Robbie Hunter of Barloworld was leading the sprint for a long time. It looked like no one had the extra power to come around until McEwen burst through the pack. This was after McEwen was nearly written off as a potential stage winner due to a crash at 12 miles to go. Robbie never gave up and tore through the sprinting pack to get the win.
The big winner of the weekend in the GC battle has to be Andreas Kloden. His second place to Fabian Cancellara shows some very good form in the TTs. If he and Vino are co-leaders as was said when Klodi was signed to Astana, then the edge goes to Klodi. Kloden is the one rider with the best historical results. He has been flying under the radar despite his pedigree which is somewhat surprising. The pressure has been on Vino more than anything especially after the press grilled Vino on his relationship with Michele Ferrari. Kloden has been relatively worry free.
One factor to take not of is that this combo has not been successful in the past. If rumors of a split in the Astana ranks are true then it does not bode well for later in the race when team work is critical. Remember past Tours when Ullrich and Klodi chased down Vino in the mountains. That T-Mobile team was formidable but their tactical sense was lacking. Astana is lead by the same Walter Goodefroot as that old T-Mobile setup. So while they look strong, watch out as they could be undone by their own lack of tactics.